A computer network is composed of a set of nodes and a set of links that connect one node to another. For instance, the nodes of a computer network may represent a set of computing resources (e.g., routers, servers, etc.) that exchange information with one another and the links of the computer network may represent the cables or transmission paths that interconnect each of the computing resources to one another. When a first node in the network sends a message to a second node in the network, the message may pass through many links and many nodes. The links and nodes that a message passes through while traveling from a first node to a second node is referred to as a path of the message.
An enterprise may deploy a large scale computer network that has many nodes and many links. The enterprise may include a procurement division and a network engineering division which are separate and distinct entities of the enterprise that operate separate and distinct systems to help the enterprise manage a large scale network. The procurement division of the enterprise may maintain an inventory database that specifies the actively deployed computing resources, the dormant, and/or the inactive (e.g., deployed, but not yet activated) physical computing resources of the network and uses the information in the inventory database to ensure the network has sufficient resources to meet existing and future demands of the network. The network engineering division of the enterprise may maintain a traffic engineering database that specifies the actively deployed computing resources and the paths that are configured to forward network traffic through the actively deployed computing resources in the network. The network engineering division may rely on the information in the traffic engineering database to change the paths for the existing and future data flow requirements of the network. These separate systems and databases, being managed by separate and distinct entities, may be irreconcilable and/or include conflicting data associated with the network. By relying on separate databases that at times may represent a different view of the network, the two divisions may not always follow consistent approaches to helping the enterprise manage the network.